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Kwik175's Stormwalk Project

Well it's been a while since I've had the desire to build another project. I stumbled up Need4Reebs sale thread where he had the Stormwalk frame and Phoenix body. I always considered the frame kind of cool, but yet it looked heavy and cumbersome. Something about it caught my eye but I just wasn't pleased with how it looked. I decided I wanted to clean it up a little and looked into getting some machine work done. Heres a pic of how it was when I received, bone stock:

I only wanted to remove the extra metal near the trigger and front LPR housing area. I also considered a new set of front panels to cover the extra air input hole.

I asked around with the airsmiths online and everyone was pretty tied up with other projects so I looked locally to me for a gunsmith. I found a guy not 20 minutes from me that agreed to cut out the piece for me. He used a manual mill to get as much as he could then he resorted to a hand file. He beveled the edges like the original was and tied it together nicely. It was just a small piece to remove but to me it cleaned up the look just right. With the piece left in there it just looked like a bridge support to me. I really like how it looks opened up. I haven't gotten new panels yet as it seems they are quite a bit of work to produce a one off pair. The local gunsmith was also busy but he had the part back to me in 10 days. Heres a pic:

And of course as it goes, while waiting for the frame to be done I started looking at the body and thought about having it milled also. I wanted the windows in the back over the top of the valve cut larger to expose more of the valve. Heres a pic to show what I wanted:

I sent the pics to CS900 from PBN. He agreed to cut the windows larger and I sent him the body. Within 3 days he got back to me with a CAD drawing for approval. Once I approved he made the cuts and shipped back to me. All this took only one week. Quite impressive turnaround time with great communication and quality work. More pics:

So here's how it sits now. It still needs to be sent out for some sort of finishing. I am contemplating several different ideas. I want something out of the ordinary to compliment the milling work that was done.

Very cool! I really enjoyed the build thread. Taking on custom machine work is a pretty big gamble, but I really like what I see. By now people probably know who I would plug to do the anodizing job on it... I would pay the extra $$$ and have Stephen@CausticCustoms fix this one up. The way he polishes his parts really sets him above the rest.

That body is down right sick how you have it. I liked it before. But what you had done makes it stand out great. My only concern would be the bolt spring wearing that top area more now. Sure it will be fine. And you can watch the bolt move. Can't wait to see the finished product.

Thanks for all the compliments guys. I really liked how it has turned out thus far also. I'm thinking of trying something a little different for me as far as finish on the gun. Heres a sample of the color I am considering. It will also have color shifting flakes that go from yellow to green to orange. Let me know what you think.

AWE YEAH!!! dood it looks great man!!! im glad you got this man...im liking wat you have done with this eh!!! cant really believe that a pair of panels would be that hard to make...they just need to be taller correct? maybe ask mike780 about some G-10 panels? i sent him a set of stormwalk panels so maybe he can help ya out? didnt Luke make some stormwalk panels???

I should be sending it out this coming week to get it finished. And if any of you remember from my last build with the Quest frame on it, I also had a fish tank project going on at the same time. Well its come a long way and Ive gotten this really cool invertebrate recently. Its an Australian Sea Apple. I took some video of it eating and the other stuff in the tank. Heres the link if you're interested:

Well its time for an update as I have made some progress. I found the barrel I wanted to use , which completed the list of parts that needed to be sent out for finishing. I thought long and hard about what I wanted and I decided to give powder coating a shot. I found a guy in Maine that has 30+ years experience and I felt more than comfortable with his ability and he has a great selection of colors. Heres a few samples of the color I am going with:

And heres a video that he posted on Facebook for me to see before he coated my parts.

The powder coating guy is also very aware of the tolerances on paintball guns and he took a lot of time talking with me to make sure he masked the proper areas. Heres some pics of the body after he masked it off.

I also spoke with the powder coat guy and there are several easy ways to thin down the coating if need. Acetone will soften it and it can be cut away with an Exacto. Sand it down with 220 and then wet sand to bring back shine if needed.

Well I got the parts back today and did some final assembly. Well sort of. I haven't yet decided if I'm leaving it as a mech or putting the pneumatics in it. I also have not picked up the new asa I ordered from my local shop. Heres a few pics and a video is being uploaded right now. Its really hard to capture the amount of color change with a pic but the video looks better.